Opposition goes on war footing

The Coalition is moving onto an election “war footing’’ with accelerated plans to merge its expenditure review and policy development committees into one body that will oversee policies and planning for a possible early poll.

A senior Coalition figure told the Weekend AFR that instability in Labor ranks over its leadership meant the opposition was clearing the decks for all possibilities, including an election well before the September 14 date laid down by Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
.

Among the priorities of a slimmed down strategy team would be to assert discipline over the release of policies, and discussion papers to avoid messy episodes such as the unauthorised release this week of documents outlining plans for northern development and water conservancy.

Senior Liberals are blaming the head of the policy development committee, Finance spokesman
Andrew Robb
for the leaks, but he vigorously denies having done so.

“It was an accident an unauthorised version got into someone’s hands,’’ an indignant Mr Robb said.

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A wrong-footed Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
was obliged to back away from elements of the northern exposure policy, including what was portrayed in news reports as “different personal tax zones". The document does not mention discriminatory tax policies as opposed to other incentives, including zonal allowances, to persuade people to relocate to northern regions.

Coalition strategists are factoring into their calculations the possibility of a
Kevin Rudd
return to the prime ministership “by April". Among the options for Mr Rudd would be a snap poll, but the betting in Coalition ranks is he would hang on until later in the year.

Other participants may include the Liberal’s senate leadership team
Eric Abetz
and George Brandis, manager of government business in the House of Representatives
Christopher Pyne
, deputy Nationals leader
Barnaby Joyce
and former
John Howard
chief of staff, now Senator
Arthur Sinodinos
.

An Abbott adviser said it was always planned the expenditure review and policy development committees would merge at the onset of an election year, but it appears talk of a resurgent Rudd challenge is hastening the process.

The Coalition is cranking up preparations for the release of about 50 policies before the election., including the anticipated early distribution of a document outlining its plans for the national broadband network.

The merged expenditure review and policy development committees will be focusing particularly on policy costing issues to avoid the shambles that accompanied the release of Coalition budgetary estimates before the 2010 poll that exposed a large “black hole’’.

Mr Robb is forging ahead with his northern development policy formulation despite this week’s hiccup. He said that based on responses to his discussion paper distributed among state Premiers and other interested parties he was “three-quarters’’ of the way towards completing a refined policy document.

He denied Mr Abbott had disavowed the policy.

Mr Robb described the northern “food-bowl’’ policy as party of a “very serious agenda’’ that was aimed at “turning the country around from the mess they’ve [Labor] got us in.’’